Australian Banking & Finance articles from May 2006

Australian Banking & Finance archives from May 2006

Big bank margins under pressure; Australia's major banks may have reported stellar half year results across the board, but competition is continuing to put heavy pressure on margins.
May 15, 2006... All of the "big four" banks have seen their margins decline as competition from second tier banks and non-bank lenders erodes traditional revenue streams. While Westpac chief executive David Morgan agrees the banking sector is in an...

GE Commercial to acquire Custom Fleet from NAB; GE Commercial Finance, the business-to-business financing unit of General Electric Company, recently announced that it has agreed to acquire the Custom Fleet business of the National Australia Bank.(NEWS)
May 15, 2006... Custom Fleet operates fleet leasing and management companies in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, as well as one of Australia's leading fuel management cards, Fleet Card. Custom Fleet will be combined with GE's existing Fleet...

IMF predicts Australian economy will continue to perform strongly; in its latest World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund expects the Australian economy will continue to perform strongly, growing by 2.9 percent in 2006 and 3.2 percent in 2007.(NEWS)
May 15, 2006... The IMF believes unemployment should remain at around its current low level of 5.2 percent over this period, and inflation to remain moderate. The IMF praises the state of Australia's public finances, noting that Australia continues to...

ING creates new positions for product development strategy.(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... ING HAS ANNOUNCED THE creation of new positions to expand its product development strategy, focusing on the changing needs of financial services consumers in Australia and reflective of the opportunities ING has, identified in the Australian...

HSBC appoints McKay to head corporate and institutional.(NEWS)
May 15, 2006... HSBC HAS APPOINTED TOM MCKAY AS HEAD OF corporate and institutional banking for Australasia. McKay previously headed up the banks debt finance group and was a director of the banks resources and energy sector division. He joined HSBC in...

Citigroup insider trading case off to slow start; a test case being waged by Australia's corporate regulator against the world's biggest bank is shaping up as a long and complicated process even before proceedings get under way.(NEWS)
May 15, 2006... Day one of insider trading allegations brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) against the Australian arm of Citigroup wrapped up after less than ten minutes. With a judge yet to be appointed to the civil...

Australia's IPO activity fourth highest in the world.(NEWS)
May 15, 2006... IPO ACTIVITY IN AUSTRALIA in 2005, MEASURED BY TOTAL CAPITAL raised, was the fourth highest in the world, according to the Ernst & Young report, Accelerating Growth: Global IPO Trends 2006. Australia raised US$10.1 billion in a total of 169...

New player for private equity market.
May 15, 2006... PEPPERTREE PARTNERS, A US private equity fund specialist will be represented in Australia by Australian Funds Marketing (AFM), providing wholesale investors in Australia with the opportunity to join Peppertree Partner's fourth fund, which will...

Foreign exchange: does trade finance originate FX business for banks? Foreign exchange (FX) has been a market "hotspot" over the past 12 months. Major banks have beefed up their FX teams, propositions and marketing campaigns while specialist providers, such as Custom House, OzForex and Currencies Direct target the SME and Micro Business segments in which Travelex has gained strong traction.(NEWS)
May 15, 2006... The go to market approach of these boutique FX providers is based around speed, simplicity and competitive pricing, a proposition which resonates with the needs of smaller businesses typically engaging Spot FX and little else (uptake of FX...

Understanding the top guns of the trading floor: Stephen Phillips, managing director for IPC in Asia Pacific, gives an insight into the trader experience and how these "Top Guns" of the trading floor use technology.
May 15, 2006... IPC's journey to design our latest turret, IQ/MAX[TM], revealed some little known facts about the ways traders work. Having an in-depth understanding about the workflow and dynamics of life on the trading floor enables us to develop tools that...

A new era in technology refresh for financial services: Paul A. Strassmann, former chief information technology executive of organisations such as Xerox, Kraft, General Foods and the United States Department of Defence, has demonstrated that worldwide IT renewal works in seven-year cycles.(SPECIAL FEATURE: NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN IT)
May 15, 2006... Each time a new technology refresh takes place, it costs a great deal more than the previous one. The last cycle, which ended at the beginning of this decade, cost US$2 trillion. The next, however, is predicted to cost business worldwide a...

Charting the steps to successful software selection.(SPECIAL FEATURE: NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN IT)
May 15, 2006... BUYING NEW SOFTWARE FOR YOUR ORGANISATION can be very costly and time-consuming but if your business has experienced rapid growth, your current systems are costly, underperforming and unsupported, or if you are entering new areas of business...

Acreis adopts Finacle to revolutionise bill payments; Infosys Technologies Australia recently announced it has successfully completed a multi million dollar project for Acreis, a new generation financial services company, to deliver its flagship 'Acreis Once' bill payment product using the Finacle Universal Banking Solution.(SPECIAL FEATURE: NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN IT)
May 15, 2006... Scheduled for a major launch mid 2006, 'Acreis Once' will provide Australians with a new way of paying their household bills unlike anything else currently on the market. 'Acreis Once' was developed to help consumers better manage their...

PowerCenter 8 release helps growth strategy of Informatica; comprehensive product release will deliver near-universal data access, unparalleled boosts in performance and scalability, and breakthrough developer productivity.(SPECIAL FEATURE: NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN IT)
May 15, 2006... Informatica Corporation, a provider of data integration software presented the details of the PowerCenter 8 data integration platform at the Informatica Sydney launch. It is the most innovative release in the company's history and will offer...

Strategy v. execution.(BOB EDGAR LECTURE--PICTORIAL)
May 15, 2006... Dr Bob Edgar, Senior Managing Director for ANZ was the keynote speaker at the recent AUSTRALIAN BANKING & FINANCE Lecture Series event held in Sydney. A large audience attended and the event was sponsored by Cisco Systems. Senior Managing...

Defending and growing customer relationships.(SAS EXECUTIVE LEADERS LUNCHEON--PICTORIAL)
May 15, 2006... Building on the success of the 2005 Series was the Melbourne leaders executive luncheon 2006 hosted by SAS. Speakers were Hugh Harley, CBA, John Cowan, MBF, Rod Bryan, IBM and Neil Thompson, Qantas. The event was held on 1 May with the Sydney...